A Student’s Death Exposes German Struggle for a Multicultural Ideal

BERLIN — The death of a Turkish-German student who tried to stop a young man from taunting two teenage girls has galvanized Germany at a time when its dealings with immigrants and its attempts to forge a more multicultural society are being intensely debated.

In a chilling surveillance video posted online by the Bild Zeitung newspaper, the student, Tugce Albayrak, who had intervened to help the girls, can be seen becoming involved in an altercation with the young man in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Offenbach, a town near Frankfurt, in mid-November. Much is murky in the video, but a young woman with dark hair falls to the concrete ground of the parking lot, and then is still. Ms. Albayrak never regained consciousness, and her life support was switched off at her parents’ request on Friday, her 23rd birthday.

Whether Ms. Albayrak, who was studying at the University of Giessen to become a schoolteacher, died from a blow to her head by the youth, identified only as Sanel M., 18, or from her fall to the ground is not clear. Her family members, who will bury her Wednesday, have objected to the posting of the video, which the authorities say they are investigating.

What is certain is that her fate has resonated because of heavy attention from conventional and social media, and also because Germany is immersed in discussion about how best to integrate non-Germans pouring in both as potential workers and as refugees fleeing war and hardship, from the Middle East to Africa. Although changing demographic patterns mean that foreign workers are critical to the continued success of Germany’s economy, the immigrants are not always made to feel welcome.

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted what her office billed as an “integration summit,” the seventh such meeting, and urged employers to ensure that immigrants and refugees received the same training opportunities as native Germans.

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More than 1,000 people took part in a vigil in Offenbach, Germany, last week for Tugce Albayrak.CreditBoris Roessler/European Pressphoto Agency

A growing group of immigrant women, frequently from Turkey, are entering professional life, often as teachers and social workers, but also as journalists and politicians.

That gave Ms. Albayrak’s death resonance beyond the misfortune of a good Samaritan who sacrificed her life trying to protect others. The youth suspected of attacking her is in detention; the two girls she reportedly tried to protect came forward and testified to the police only late on Monday.

President Joachim Gauck, a former East German pastor who has made a point of opening up his presidential palace to multicultural gatherings, wrote to Ms. Albayrak’s parents this week. “Like countless citizens, I am horrified and shaken by this terrible deed,” he wrote. “Our whole country is grieving with you.”

An Internet petition calling for Ms. Albayrak to be awarded the country’s highest civilian honor has garnered more than 158,000 signatures. Mr. Gauck would have to make a special exception to confer the award, which is not given posthumously.

About 180,000 people have “liked” a Facebook page established by Ms. Albayrak’s friends, which is headlined, “Tugce showed civic courage; let us show her respect.” McDonald’s paid for a full-page ad in Tuesday’s editions of Bild.

“We grieve for an extraordinary woman, who showed civic courage and in doing so lost her life,” the ad says, in German and Turkish.

Correction:

An article last Wednesday about the death of a Turkish-German student who was killed when she tried to stop a man from harassing two girls, a case that has provoked debate over Germany’s efforts to form a multicultural society, referred incorrectly to the student, Tugce Albayrak. Although of Turkish descent, Ms. Albayrak was born in Germany; she was not an immigrant. The error was repeated in the headline.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: An Immigrant’s Death Exposes German Struggle for a Multicultural Ideal. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe